The organization representing First Nations in northern Manitoba also implemented new regulations for its communities to help minimize the spread of COVID-19. “COVID-19 will impact First Nations very differently from the rest of Canadian society because of the social determinants that we live in, and the living conditions in the north are very different,” said Garrison Settee, grand chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. “Overcrowded homes is an incubus for the infection to spread.
It will spread fast and it will impact our First Nations very differently.” Settee has called for First Nations to only allow essential travel in and out of communities.